The invention relates to an instrument holder for a surgical instrument, comprising a shank equipped with a head designed to receive an instrument, and an annular locking component mounted so as to slide about the shank, under the head, equipped with locking means which cooperate with the head so as to lock the instrument on the head, and pushed against the head by a helical spring.
An instrument holder of this type is known in particular from U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,290 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,236,433, the contents of which are incorporated by reference.
A surgical instrument, for example for preparing for the fitting of a hip prosthesis, works in a medium which causes considerable soiling of the instrument and the instrument holder. Moreover, a surgical instrument holder must be cleaned very frequently and very carefully in order to avoid any risk of infection. However, cleaning of surgical instruments is difficult, in particular cleaning of the space between the shank and the locking component on account of the presence of bone debris and coagulated blood.